


Nightfall

by Romance_My_Chemical



Category: Daybreak (TV)
Genre: Bi-Curiosity, Canon Gay Character, Canon Gay Relationship, End of the World, F/F, F/M, Gay Male Character, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:14:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28225197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Romance_My_Chemical/pseuds/Romance_My_Chemical
Summary: 𝙴𝚕𝚒 𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚐𝚖𝚊. 𝙽𝚘𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚎'𝚜 𝚖𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜, 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚌𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚘𝚗 𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙹𝚘𝚜𝚑 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚗𝚘 𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚊 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚗 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚢 𝚋𝚛𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚑𝚒𝚜. 𝙾𝚗𝚎 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚝𝚎, 𝚑𝚎'𝚜 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚎, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝚑𝚎'𝚜 𝚝𝚛𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚔𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝙹𝚘𝚜𝚑 𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚆𝚎𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚢.𝙴𝚕𝚒 𝚔𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚒𝚖 𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚔𝚎, 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑. 𝙰𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝙰𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚊 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚆𝚎𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚢 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚗, 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝙹𝚘𝚜𝚑 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜𝚗'𝚝.𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚜. 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚑𝚎, 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢? 𝙱𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝚍𝚊𝚢, 𝚑𝚎'𝚜 𝚜𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚂𝚊𝚖 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚛𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛.
Relationships: Eli Cardashyan & Wesley Fists & Angelica Green & Josh Wheeler, Eli Cardashyan/Josh Wheeler, Eli Cardashyan/Mavis, Ms. Crumble | The Witch & Angelica Green, Samaira "Sam" Dean/Mona Lisa (Daybreak), Wesley Fists/Turbo Pokaski | Turbo Bro Jock
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	1. The Playlist Of Our Lives

𝔸𝕗𝕣𝕒𝕚𝕕~𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℕ𝕖𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕕

ℝ𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕠𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖~𝕀𝕞𝕒𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕖 𝔻𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕠𝕟𝕤

𝔹𝕠𝕣𝕟 𝔽𝕠𝕣 𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕤~𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕊𝕔𝕠𝕣𝕖

𝕋𝕖𝕖𝕥𝕙~𝟝 𝕊𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕕𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕦𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕣 

𝔹𝕦𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕥𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕠𝕗~𝔾𝕠𝕕𝕤𝕞𝕒𝕔𝕜

𝔽𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕐𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝔻𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕙~𝕄𝕪 ℂ𝕙𝕖𝕞𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕝 ℝ𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖

𝔼𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕪𝕓𝕠𝕕𝕪 𝕎𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕤 𝕋𝕠 ℝ𝕦𝕝𝕖 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕~𝕋𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕤 𝔽𝕠𝕣 𝔽𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕤

ℂ𝕙𝕠𝕜𝕖~𝕀 𝔻𝕠𝕟'𝕥 𝕂𝕟𝕠𝕨 ℍ𝕠𝕨 𝔹𝕦𝕥 𝕋𝕙𝕖𝕪 𝔽𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 𝕄𝕖

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕂𝕚𝕕𝕤 𝔽𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕐𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕕𝕒𝕪~𝕄𝕪 ℂ𝕙𝕖𝕞𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕝 ℝ𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖

ℝ𝕦𝕟 𝔹𝕠𝕪 ℝ𝕦𝕟~𝕎𝕠𝕠𝕕𝕜𝕚𝕕

𝕊𝕞𝕖𝕝𝕝𝕤 𝕃𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕋𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕊𝕡𝕚𝕣𝕚𝕥~ℕ𝕚𝕣𝕧𝕒𝕟𝕒

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕠𝕣𝕝𝕕 𝕀𝕤 𝕌𝕘𝕝𝕪~𝕄𝕪 ℂ𝕙𝕖𝕞𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕝 ℝ𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖

𝕋𝕖𝕒𝕞~𝕃𝕠𝕣𝕕𝕖

𝕋𝕦𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕆𝕦𝕥~𝔸𝕁ℝ

ℍ𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕪 𝕋𝕠𝕘𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣~𝔾𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕣𝕕 𝕎𝕒𝕪 & ℝ𝕒𝕪 𝕋𝕠𝕣𝕠

𝕀 𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕜 𝕎𝕖'𝕣𝕖 𝔸𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕖 ℕ𝕠𝕨~𝕋𝕚𝕗𝕗𝕒𝕟𝕪


	2. Too Short To Actually Be A Chapter, So Josh Will Call It A Prologue

~⚠~

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚗 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚖𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚞𝚜𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚋𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚊 𝚍𝚎𝚟𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝. 

Josh clutches Eli's hand in his as he attempts to stop the flow of blood. It's no use. He's already gone, his eyes closed. 

It takes him a moment to compose himself and to choke back his tears. His kips still tingle from the kiss Eli has pressed to his lips, and Josh can taste the blood on his tongue. 

He looks at Eli again, taking in his features one last time. Josh presses another kiss to his forehead. 

He needs to finish this. For Eli. 

Josh wipes the tears off of his cheeks forcefully before he carefully moves Eli's body to take the disguise off of him, and then moves him into the cage. There's no use in leaving his body here. He owes him as much as a good grave where ghoulies can't devour his body. 

"I'm not that much of a jerk. Even if Eli would rather I left him here." 

Josh straps on the rest of the costume, and then drives off. 

~⚠~


	3. The Walking Dead™, But We Don't Have The Legal Authority To Call Him That

~⚠~

𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝙴𝚕𝚒'𝚜 𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚗 𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗, it's to darkness. 

It's unusually cold, but he's laying a soft blanket instead of the cold ground, which is where he remembers last being. 

Which is an incredibly not assholish move -- not one he expected Josh to pull. 

It takes him a minute, but he remembers what happened, and his hands fly to his stomach. He's not in pain. Maybe it's the cold. He's numb, but he still can't feel any injury -- only smooth and unharmed skin. 

The next thing Eli does is look at his surrounding. 

It's dark, so he can't even see anything, but it's a force of habit when waking up in a strange place that isn't his bed beside Mavis. 

"Where the shit am I?" 

There's an obvious door to his right, but he doesn't notice it. 

The camera motions to the door. 

"What?" 

Another motion. 

"A door?" 

An arrow and a message. 'Flashback time.' 

"Nah, man, Josh does that shit. I'm not fucking crazy." 

The arrow flashes. 

"Shit, dude, just give me a second. I should be dead, homie." 

'Yet, you're not. Flashback. Now.' 

"What the fuck? Are you always this aggressive?" 

The door opens by itself, and light floods into the room. A freezer. The one in the Smoothie King if Eli is right. 

"What the shit? Why am I in here?" 

The arrow flashes red. 

"Fine. Fine! Hisus K'ristos! No wonder Josh is always such an ass bag." 

Eli moves hops off of the table -- what is this, a fucking morgue? -- and walls slowly through the door and out into a field. 

He recognizes it as the park he thought he died in, and there Josh is, holding his body. 

Watching with a close eye, Eli concentrates on how Josh kisses his forehead before stripping his Triumph disguise off of him. The asshat didn't even bother to check for a pulse! 

Josh rides off towards the school, and Eli watches him. The flashback doesn't end, so he begins to walk in a random direction. 

'Follow him.' 

"Why? So I can see the disgusting reunion of him and Sam fucking Dean?" 

'This is important.' 

"I bet." 

Eli doesn't want to listen to the voice. The voice? What exactly is that? Maybe the bomb did more damage than they originally thought if they're all seeing this. 

But he listens anyway. 

He can see Burr leading a bunch of jocks toward the middle of the field, where a missile sits. Eli knows it's there because he likes to know stuff. 

He doesn't care for what happens here, but It thinks it's important for him to know, so he watches anyway. 

It's boring, but then the missile goes off, and suddenly he can't hear anything. 

A door appears in a tree -- a strange place for a door, but it's not like there are any building close enough -- and he talks through it, and he's suddenly back in their -- his -- mall. 

~⚠~

"Hello?" Eli yells out. His voice echoes back at him, the mall seemingly empty. His hearing is still a little shot from the explosion, but he can hear the air running and the toy kiosk to his left.

The Smoothie King is on the other end of the mall from where they usually hang out, so Eli had no idea how they knew about the freezer, but at least they put him somewhere that he could get out of. Not that they know he's alive -- which Eli is painfully aware of. 

Why they hadn't checked for a pulse or him breathing is beyond him. Everyone knows that your favourite character is never really or completely dead. 

Of course, Eli is your favourite character. 

A loud bang startles Eli, coming from somewhere on the second floor. Again, a place they don't usually hang out. He just hopes a ghoulie didn't get in here. Eli wouldn't put it past the trespassers to accidentally let one in while going out. 

It turns out it didn't come from the second floor when Eli comes upon a group of the trespassers rushing into his mall. 

He slowly makes his way toward them, trying to decide whether he wants to make his presence known before Josh spots him. 

"Eli!" 

The noise is so loud he doesn't have time to register it before Josh is tackling him to the ground in a hug. 

"Holy shit, dude, we thought you were dead!" 

Wesley is the one who yelled that surprises him, but he joins their hug.

"Y'all are the shit heads who don't check for a pulse!" Eli yells at them, hugging then back just as hard. "You're the idiots who don't know your medical shit! You're lucky Ms Crumble deals with our shit!" 

Josh laughs and all of their arms tighten around each other. 

Josh absolutely fucking beams at him and Eli can feel his face go red from how pretty he looks. 

It's Sam fucking Dean interrupts their little moment. 

"Yeah, uh, who is this?" 

Her question causes a sharp pain to shoot through his chest and it's suddenly hard to breathe. Of course, she doesn't know who he is. Little Miss Friends-With-Everyone suddenly doesn't seem so appealing in his head. 

Josh pulls his face out from inside of Eli's neck and Eli can see his eyes darken. 

"This is Eli. He owns the mall and he's letting us stay here while we build our plan." Josh glances back down at him, his eyebrows drawn together. "We'll be gone as soon as we're done planning." His voice lowers so only the four of them can hear. "Unless you want to join our tribe?" 

Eli searches his eyes for any hint of deceit or trickery but finds none. "Ye-" his voice cracks. He clears his throat. "Yeah, of course." 

The grin appears back on his face, his eyes soft. 

Eli can't help the small smile that slides onto his face. 

Wesley rolls his eyes and groans at them. Eli glares at him. 

He swears that he can hear someone whisper something about young love. 

"Yeah, that doesn't answer my question," Sam interrupt again. 

Eli doesn't know what he expected from the girl, but this surely isn't fucking it. 

"He's going to help us win this." 

The amount of trust he sees in his friends' eyes scares him. He would have never expected to see that amount of trust for him from any of these people. He enjoys it. It's a good thing Eli trusts them just as much. 

"What's the plan?" 

~⚠~

"That's a shit plan." 

They're in the Juicy Couture, away from the other Daybreakers. That's what they're calling themselves now. Eli can't decide if he likes the name or not. He's leaning towards not. 

"Yeah, I know, but honestly, it's the best we have." 

Josh's reasoning is horrible at best, but Eli knows that they don't have enough time to come up with a better one. 

Wesley looks at the paper, examining the poorly drawn details. 

"Maybe, instead of immediately driving there we should get a crowd. And make sure that there's good protection for the people on the trailer so that when we stop, the ghoulies won't try to go for them," he nudges at one of the action figures on the drawing. 

Turbo grunts at him, moving the truck with his figure. 

"Yeah, that should work." 

How Wesley understands Turbo is beyond him. 

"What'd he suggest?" Josh asks, distracted. He's drawing up another map, one of the school. They hope to barricade it off or lock it down just in case Burr decides to go there. 

Wesley glances at Eli and winks at him, most likely noticing how he's watching Josh. 

"He wants the truck with him and the rest of the Cheermazons to come up after the ghoulies run in. He thinks it will scare Burr into running, which will confuse the Jocks just enough to be able to take the ones not taken out by ghoulies down." 

Josh looks up from his drawing to glance in between Turbo and Wesley. 

"And you got that from just one grunt?" 

Wesley scoffs and rolls his eyes. "No, I just know where he was going with it. I know his strategies enough to be able to guess that much." 

Turbo nods along with his words. 

Josh shakes his head. "Whatever you say, man. Anyway, yeah, that should work. And even if it doesn't work exactly the way we hope, it should shock them because I'm pretty sure they think he's dead." 

"And if it doesn't shock them, it certainly shows how powerful we are, and may cause Burr to falter. No matter the outcome, it may just be the reason we're able to win," Eli reasons from his spot on the table. "Well, besides the ghoulie army." 

Josh smiles at him. "Look at you, being all strategic." 

Eli smirks and gives a small bow. "I try." 

Wesley coughs loudly into his fist, and Eli turns back toward them. 

"I think that Eli should drive the trailer with me, and Sam should drive the truck with KJ. And it would be better for the Daybreakers to make all of the music. I don't think they've fought a day in their life, so the fighting can be left for the Cheermazons." 

Eli sees his point, but he doesn't know why he would want Sam in the trailer with him. 

He doesn't have time to dwell on it before KJ and Sam are walking into the room, telling them that it's time to get going. 

~⚠~

The Daybreakers are overjoyed to make noise, something about having to live in relative silence to keep the ghoulies away making them love the music, even though it's the most horrible sound Eli has ever heard. 

At first, they were a little confused, and Eli could see why, but they took to it like Eli in the apocalypse.

"Hi, what the shit," Sam says, coming around the trailer and pulling Josh to the side. 

Eli trails after them, wanting to hear their conversation. 

"I'm relatively confident this is gonna end well," Josh says. Eli can hear the confusion in his voice, most likely from how Sam had no confidence in his plan. 

Eli can understand her hesitation, but they foolproofed the plan right down to the arrival, and it really should end well.

"You're going to fight Baron Triumph with the surviving members of the JV marching band?" 

Did they have a JV marching band? Perhaps Eli should have paid more attention to the sports part of high school. 

"Come on, Sam. They don't have to be good, just as loud as possible!" 

One of the Cheermazons stops them and signs something to Josh. 

Eli doesn't understand it, but Josh responds with a high five and tells Sam, "Yeah! See?" 

Sam rolls her eyes. "Yeah, that makes total sense. Thank you." 

They finally start playing some semblance of music and a ghoulie comes stumbling toward them -- the first of hopefully many -- and attempts to get into the trailer. Fortunately, it's not a very athletic one, so it isn't able to, but they won't be so fortunate later on. 

Sam freaks out in any cade, ready to fight it, but Josh just eggs the Daybreakers to keep playing.

KJ practically has an aneurysm once she realises the plan, but goes along with it once they explain that they'll be right behind them, making sure the ghoulies can't get into the trailer.

They finally get into the front seats of the vehicles, going to drive off when Josh suddenly stops. 

He looks at Eli, completely serious, before honking at KJ to stop driving for a minute. 

"Eli, I need you to do something for me."

~⚠~

They have to drive at a measly five miles per hour to attract as many ghoulies as possible, but their departure time accounts for the slow driving. 

It also means that they have plenty of time to talk. 

"So, about what happened this morning," Josh starts. 

Eli chuckles nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. 

"Look, man, I thought I was dying." Eli knows it's bullshit reasoning, and Josh can hear the lie, too, but he hopes that the other will let him believe it. 

"So, you mean that you didn't want to kiss me?" 

His face heats up from the blood rushing to it. 

"Of fucking course I wanted to kiss you." His voice cracks like he's fourteen again. "Have you met yourself?"

Josh looks away from the road to face him, and Eli can finally see how red his face is. 

"I have." His voice is so incredibly soft that Eli wants to keep doing whatever he did to make it that soft for the rest of his life. 

Eli clears his throat. "Then, yeah, you should know why." 

He says it so nonchalantly that he almost thinks Josh will leave it alone. His life has never been and never will be that simple. 

"Would you, uh," he clears his throat, "would you like to do it again?" 

"Josh Wheeler. What do you take me for?" 

Josh's face turns even redder, but he's smiling. 

"Maybe," he trails off. "Perhaps my boyfriend?" 

It's Eli's turn to go red. 

"Why don't we talk about it once all of this is over, lover boy? It's time." 

~⚠~


	4. Triumph Is An Asshole, But We Been Knew

~⚠~

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚎𝚕𝚜𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚝, Eli will be inside setting traps for when Burr is certain to come and take all of the kids out of cages. 

However, the plan was last-ditch right before they left the mall, so Eli didn't have time to get everything he normally uses. Fortunately, it's a warehouse -- an old one at that -- so it should relatively easy. 

And all those cages? It's basically elementary. 

Eli can hear the music from outside and he hums along as he sets to work.

He has to be quiet because there are still some Jocks setting around doing stuff, but it shouldn't be too hard with all of the hiding places and how the loud the music is outside. 

He's thankful that they sent him alone. The silence gives him time to think. The last however many days Josh has been in his life all blur together, and Eli can't tell them apart, but he can't stop thinking about this morning. Or was it yesterday morning? 

There isn't a set calendar in the apocalypse. Even days and nights blur together, the weather sometimes completely changing the lighting of the sky. 

But he thinks of the moments before his near-death. 

Josh, Angelica, and Wesley barging in and taking over his mall had set them on his shit list, so it wasn't a surprise that he didn't get along with them. They are pleasant people, truly, but Eli prefers to be able to have silence. And let's face it, those three -- four, including Crumble -- have no idea how to leave anyone -- much less Eli -- alone. 

Eli finishes a trap by the entrance that Burr is most likely to take. It's set to go off once a certain weight or pressure is put on it -- a weight and pressure no one else can put on the trigger. Which is good, because maybe Josh's and Sam's plan for later will work. 

He goes towards the cages and sets a similar trap on the second floor. 

"Need help there, babe?" 

The voice surprises him, and it makes him jump.

He twists around, facing the person. 

"Mavis?" 

"You got that right, babe," she answers, smirking at him. 

Eli gapes at her. "Yo, where have you been? You disappeared when Josh and them showed up!" 

The girl laughs and smiles gently at him. 

"I went to the Cheermazons. I knew you needed a push towards them." 

He scoffs. "Yeah, a push. They locked me in one half of the mall for two days." 

"Yet, here you are, doing stuff for them. Face it, you love them." Her tone is teasing but she's most likely doing it out of love. 

Eli missed her. 

"Anyway, I figured you could use some help with getting these kids out of here." 

The kids in question all start to shake their cages. 

"Hey! Be quiet!" One of the Jocks yell. 

They stop but don't sit back down. 

"Okay, guys, we're gonna help you get out of here," Eli says to them in a stage whisper. 

There's a loud bang at the main entrance, and then Burr is yelling at the Jocks to get outside. 

Eli and Mavis duck down to where he can't see them. 

"Fuck!" He kicks something. 

There's a moment of silence, and then he's walking toward some kind of dresser and putting on his Triumph outfit. 

Eli can see him starting to walk toward the cages, so he motions for Mavis to follow him. 

After some quick thinking and Eli remembering the field trip his middle school took to this factory, he leads them to the bathrooms. 

He doesn't think he'll come this way, but better safe than sorry, so they duck into the first one they see. 

The lights don't work, but Eli has a flashlight.

"Here, get in one of the stalls," he says to Mavis, pushing open the first one. 

Mavis gasps, backing away from the stall. 

Laying on the floor is what appears to be a dead Mona Lisa. 

Eli's hand goes over his face. "Oh, Hisus K'ristos." 

There's a yell, and then Ms Crumble comes out of nowhere and tackles Eli. 

"Woah, hey! It's just little Eli Cardashyan!"

Mona Lisa isn't dead, it seems. 

"Little Eli?" Crumble questions. "My Little Monster!" 

She yells it into his ear, and Eli struggles to get her off of him.

"Yo, hey! Stop that!" 

Eli is relieved when she climbs off of him, but she doesn't let him go.

Mavis giggles at them and Eli can see Mona rolling her eyes. 

"We need to get out of here," Mona says, starting to walk out of the bathroom.

"Yeah, we do, but Burr is in there," Eli responds, attempting to pull himself out if Crumble's arms. She lets him go, slowly. 

Mona cracks her knuckles. "Yeah, well I always wanted to kick his ass." 

The moment feels different to Eli like it shouldn't be happening. 

'That's because you should be dead' the mirror flashes. 

Eli rolls his eyes. "Yeah, but I'm not." 

"Let's get out of here," Mona says, marching forward and out of the bathroom.

It takes them a moment to get back to the main area of the factory, but once they do, they can see Burr fixing to attack Josh. 

Eli makes a split-second decision and yells out to Josh. "Josh! Behind you! Burr!" 

Josh whirls around, his skateboard managing to block Burr from what looks like a knife. 

Sam suddenly appears out of nowhere, yelling. 

"Go, Josh! Triumph is my responsibility!" 

Josh hesitates, but then she yells out again. 

"Get Crumble to Angelica! Before we all die!" 

She continues to fight him while Josh stumbles down to where they stand. 

"Ms Crumble, we need you to help Angelica with this nuke," he explains, grabbing her and dragging her along. 

She follows him, and they follow her. "Why didn't you just say so?" 

Eli looks over to Mavis to nudge her, but she's not there. 

He can see her at the buses, attempting to get them open. 

"Because first, I have a plan to stop Triumph." 

~⚠~

Eli knows it's over once Triumph lies there unmoving. 

Well, over in that they can finally be able to make their new world. 

There's still an exploded nuke sitting right outside. 

The run to get to Angelica before being before blocked by Wesley and Turbo getting ready to fight an army of Jocks. 

"Whoa, won't, won't!" Sam yells, stopping the Jocks from attacking the two. 

Eli blocks it all out because frankly, he doesn't trust or like Sam all that much, but he focuses on Josh, who pulls him slightly to the side. 

"Hey, are you okay?" 

He has no idea how he used to hate the sweet boy right in front of him. 

"I'm Gucci, bro," he says as he punches lightly at Josh's shoulder. "You know nothing gets past the E-man." 

Josh smiles at him and almost all of Eli's worries melt away. Almost. There's still a giant nuke sitting right in front of them.

"I just had to be sure," he says, grabbing Eli's hand. 

Eli would like to sit there for the rest of his life, but they're moving forward again, hopefully, to help Angelica. 

~⚠~

They all pile onto the platform to watch the two unarm the nuke. 

Why they don't get as far away as possible, Eli doesn't know. 

Her rather be anywhere than listen to these two talk nonsense.

Crumble says something about the nuke making the ghoulies, but Eli only cares about the part about them not being able to unarm it. 

"The way of the samurai is death, but I'm still gonna get my Emily Blunt on before I kiss the infinite," Wesley interjects, going to light a blunt. 

Eli smirks at him. "Of course you would." 

"No!" Angelica yells, smacking the lighter out of his hand. "Put that out! We're on a rocket!" 

Eli watches her as she has a sudden realization, going on some rant about how men wanted to fuck the world before she's saying she knows what she has to do. 

He can't see what she's doing on the little computer thing, but she's typing fast, so he can only hope that she knows what she's doing. 

"We can fire it!" 

It causes a ripple effect of people looking at each other and smiling, but there has to be a catch. There's always a catch. 

"There enough fuel left, that it will reach the mesosphere, and explode there, far enough away it won't hurt us!" 

Eli can hear cheering coming from the people surrounding them, and Josh grips his hand tighter. He can only smile at the other. 

"Okay, then do it!" Sam tells her, getting closer so she can look over her shoulder. 

"But," Angelica starts. 

Of fucking course there's a 'but'. 

"But what?" Josh asks, pulling Eli along with him as he goes to look over her shoulder as well. 

"But, it can only be launched manually, from right here." 

The entire group sighs and starts to move, likely going to find shelter. 

Crumble stands up suddenly, raising her hand. 

"I'll do it." 

A shock goes through Eli as he realizes what that would mean. 

"What?" Angelica says "You'll die! You'll be incarcerated in five-thousand degrees of liquid nitrogen hell."

Eli doesn't understand it completely, but he knows this is not something Crumble should be doing. 

Crumble giggles. "Silly, I will turn myself into a mist!" She proclaims, tickling under Angelica's chin. 

"No! You can't do that!" Angelica asserts, going to stand with Crumble. "You're not able to, okay?" She starts to walk away, leading the others. "Come on, we need to find shelter before this thing goes off." 

Josh starts to pull Eli after him, but Eli lets go of his hand and hugs Crumble. 

She doesn't hesitate in wrapping him up in her arms. "Goodbye, Little Monster." 

Eli chokes back tears, before letting her. 

"Bye, Ms Crumble." 

Josh grabs his hand and pulls him along again. 

Eli watches as Angelica goes back to Ms Crumble, so he stops Josh. 

"Come on," Angelica begs, motioning for Ms Crumble to follow her. 

"Go." Eli heads her say. 

Angelica runs back toward Crumble, likely to hug her. 

"Angelica!" Josh cries out, letting go of Eli's hand to go after her. 

Eli follows him, with Wesley behind him. 

He watches with the two as Angelica latches onto Ms Crumble. 

The fact that she's crying is evident in her voice as she says, "No. I'm not leaving you here! I'm staying with you! I won't, I won't!" 

Eli feels tears going down his face as Ms Crumble's face contorts with tears. 

"It's gonna be okay, honey." 

"No, I won't!" Angelica yells, struggling against Josh and Wesley pulling her away from Ms Crumble. 

They finally get her away from the teacher, with her struggling to get back to her. 

She was at them, and Eli gives her one last smile, wiping tears off of his face. 

Josh starts yelling for them to get to the trucks, likely to get them away from the blast range. 

He managed to grab onto Eli's hand, pulling him along and they stand in a neat little group once they make it out of the blast range, with Eli, Wesley, and Josh behind Angelica, ready to grab her in case she starts to run. 

Ms Crumble smiles at them again before turning to press the button. 

Eli hides his face in the back of Josh's shoulder and Josh's hand comes up to rest in his hair. The nuke starts to fire up and Angelica is suddenly in their arms. 

Eli hugs her with one arm while Josh hugs her with his other. He can feel Wesley come up behind him and hugging them all together. 

Their little family feels incomplete with Crumble and Eli starts to cry. 

He feels like a little kid again, or like at the beginning of the apocalypse once he realized his family was gone. 

The nuke finally explodes up in the air, and Eli feels a sense of completion come over him. 

They all start hugging as the shrapnel rains down from the sky and Eli watches as Angelica walks away from them. He can hear the celebrating coming from the remaining Jocks, Cheermazons, and Daybreakers, but he feels numb. 

He follows Angelica, hugging her from behind. He can feel Wesley and Josh behind them, joining the hug. 

"I'm so sorry," Eli mumbles into her hair. 

They watch the platform burn away for a moment when suddenly there's a voice. 

"What are we staring at?" 

He can feel a jolt of happiness shoot through him at her voice. 

"What are you?" Angelica asks after basically throwing herself at the woman. 

"I don't know," Crumble starts. "But aren't we going to have fun figuring it out together?" 

Eli lets a smile take over his face as he turns back around to hug Josh. 

They stand there for who knows how long before Wesley interrupts them. 

"Hey, not to ruin your little love fest, but Sam looks about ready to explode." 

Eli cringes. Maybe Josh doesn't want him, just wants Sam. 

He had been looking for her for a straight six months. 

"Well, aren't you just the hypocrite?" Sam declares as she comes up behind them. 

Josh still doesn't let him go for a few more seconds, but when he does turn toward Sam, their hands are still joined. Eli will take that as a good sign that he doesn't want Sam anymore. 

"What the hell are you talking about?" 

Eli watches the blonde roll her eyes and crosses her arms. "You called me a slut, but you've banged both KJ and Eli." 

It's Josh's turn to roll his eyes. "Okay, I didn't bang KJ. I turned her down. But at least Eli doesn't lie to me about everything that our relationship is." 

Sam scoffs. 

Josh doesn't give her a chance to speak. "Look, I'm sorry that I said all that to you. I've had a lot of time to go over it in my head these last few months. But I'm over you now. There wasn't a chance for us to get back together." 

Eli looks at Josh, and Josh squeezes his hand in response. 

"You know, Burr was right about you," Josh says as he turns away. 

"You don't know me, Josh Wheeler," she says, bringing their attention back to her. 

"Well then who are you?" Josh asks her. 

She gives them a cruel smile before climbing on the trailer. 

"I'm Sam Dean!" She announces as she motions at Mona Lisa. "This is my life now. These are my people, and they need a leader. They need me." 

Together, they go to the back of the trailer. 

"The apocalypse wasn't the best thing to happen to you, Josh. It was the best thing to happen to me." 

She sits down on the throne and crosses her legs. 

"So, follow me." 

~⚠~


End file.
